Suprised to say the least
Part of my job includes teaching Spanish teenagers to improve their English. Most of the course books have listening exercises which use rock and pop songs to help with their listening skills.
Usually these comprise of cheaply recorded cover versions of Beatles songs,Madonna,Oasis (always Wonderwall) and more recently Coldplay. Avril Lavigne is very popular in these books too.
So Imagine my amazement when a new book arrived today and one of the songs in the book is the original recoring of "So You Wanna Be a Rock n Roll Star" by The Byrds.
the songs we use have to be clearly understandable and every word should be able to be made out clearly. they are supposed to follow or demonstrate some grammar point but we use them to stop them getting bored or killing each other.
Trying to wheen the kids off 1000mph techno is nearly mission impossible. God knows what they will make of this.they will sing along with something they know but i doubt this will be one of those times.
Any suggestions for songs i can use ?
they loved "Dancing Queen" and "Pretty Woman" but didn't like "Waterloo Sunset". see what i'm up against
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Anything by Chuck Berry
Then Subterranean Homesick Blues.
My Ding a Ling?
in Espanol???
Cool!
Be careful what you wish for
wanna Hear a version ? Not by Chuck though
Simplify, classify, select, dissect
Some songs stick to a really basic, relentless grammatical structure, which might be useful.
If you like the Byrds, how about they're version of "All I Really Want To Do" for some good verb practice?
Could they adapt the lyrics to John Lennon's "God"? (Swap "believe" for another verb, e.g. "like", and then change the nouns). Get some guitars out and play along...
John Lennon
"Imagine" is used in some books. The kids who actually play guitars all seem to be into Green Day and the Chilli Peppers. One because it's easy to play and the other because it it isn't ?
An argument i once heard about why Nirvana were so popular.
For Armistice day i played them "And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda" by June Tabor. They have lyrics sheets with words missing and then we usually translate it so they can understand it if they already haven't. Went down very well
A little time?
I remember listening to the BBC World Service on a portable, wind-up radio somewhere in Eastern Europe in the early-90s. They had a programme which used music to teach English language. The only show I heard was where they used "A little time" by the Beautiful South.
How about
"Orange Claw Hammer"-Captain Beefheart
Lawyers Guns and Money Warren Zevon
It has amusing lyrics that aren't at all jokey and an upbeat tempo and you can clap along with it.
It also mentions spanish speaking places so they could identify with it. It mentions the word "shit" but I'd still use it with adults.
I probably only think of it becuase I was once asked to make a cd for a Polish bloke who liked music and wanted to hear well written songs to improve his English. One of the songs I put on was Zevon's "Carmelita."
That's probably too slow for your Techno loving students.